


A Caricature of a Semi-Friendship

by parrotfish_elliot



Series: Caricature Series [2]
Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-29 23:13:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10864110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parrotfish_elliot/pseuds/parrotfish_elliot
Summary: A look into the growth of Marvin's friendship with the lesbians from next door.





	A Caricature of a Semi-Friendship

The clattering of pans is what first drew Marvin to his next-door neighbours; the shout of “Charlotte, babe, I broke our skillet!” from a distinctly female mouth is what truly snagged his interest.

Technically, though, they approached him, first. They knocked on his door, hand in hand, grinning. The blonde was holding a pie, the one in the lab coat was holding a business card.

They introduced themselves as Charlotte and Cordelia, the lesbians from next door. The card, as well as the pie, were Cordelia’s, advertising her failing catering business. A bite told Marvin exactly why it was failing, but he carefully schooled his face to keep her happy, a trick he had learned with Jason when he was younger. She seemed overjoyed by the (faked) grin on his face, so the effort was worth it.

They hung out in Marvin’s apartment for hours, until Cordelia and Charlotte did one thing, a tiny thing, that mirrored a tiny thing he and his ex-lover used to do all the time, and suddenly he was crying, and they were asking what they did, and he was yelling for them to get out, and all the effort he put into getting over his ex was futile and didn’t help him.

Despite his melodramatic breakdown, the lesbians from next door showed up the day after that, and for many days after that. They became something resembling friends, and it certainly didn’t hurt that Jason adored them. Sometimes Marvin thought his son preferred his neighbours to himself.

 

The topics they discussed were never serious. It was only small talk over failed meals, discussing Jason’s school life, Marvin’s job, Cordelia’s most recent food challenge, Charlotte’s successful patients. Whenever they danced on the edge of discussing deeper topics- the ex-lover, the occasional panic attacks, the burn marks on the dish between them- they would backtrack quickly.

That’s not to say the women knew nothing about Marvin’s past life. Simply from the photographs on his wall, they learned of his ex-wife and ex-psychiatrist. They learned of his sexuality from the kid, asking them about genetics related to homosexuality. They learned about his ex-lover from a photo album he let them leaf through. “Who took these?” They had asked curiously, surprised when he answered with “Whizzer, my ex.”

 

They knew a bit more than nothing about said ex, as there aren’t many Whizzers on earth, and he had quite a name for himself in the gay scene. Within a month, they knew what he looked like and what medical diseases he was fighting. The kinds of things one could find out simply by asking the bouncer at a popular gay bar.

They didn’t tell Marvin they knew these things, and they continued with their happy illusion of ignorance.

They were only allowed to stop pretending when Whizzer came back into Marvin’s life, when he became Cordelia’s bitching partner, and when he became Charlotte’s star patient. They switched from ignorance to knowing, knowing possibly too much from the mouth on him after a glass of wine, knowing more about Marvin than they had ever expected.

Marvin, shockingly, coped well with the shift, and they became more of friends and less of casual neighbours. They were who he’d go to if he needed fashion advice for a date. They were who he’d go to if he and Whizzer fought. They were who he went to when everything burned around him.

And it was good, and it was healthy, and it was nothing that an onlooker would think. Perhaps that’s a better illusion than the ignorance, anyways.


End file.
